An introspection tool allows users, such as software developers and system administrators, to examine the activities of software (e.g., operating system, application, program) while it is executing to help diagnose a performance or functional problem. An introspection tool can include tracing and probing features, for example, to allow a user to examine variables in the software code, and to ‘hook’ into the software code to gather information about the software. An introspection tool may use debug information to implement tracing and probing features.
Typically, debug information is provided by a debug package. In conventional methods, a user must manually download, install, maintain this extensive debug package. Installing the debug package, however, can be a time consuming process and once installed, the debug package may take over 1 GB of a computer's hard disk resources. A user must also continually maintain the debug package to ensure that it is up to date. A user may need to replace a debug package and thus, repeat the installation process.
The manual and time consuming process to download, install, and maintain a separate and extensive debug information package can place a burden on a software developer and can limit computer resources.